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Facebook: Personal, Professional… and Private!

By Mari Smith | February 8, 2008 |

It’s true the lines between personal and professional get real blurry in the online world with all the blogs and social networking sites. Especially for us self-employed peeps, when who we are as a person is also our business.

I’m all for revealing information about my personal life, my personal thoughts and opinions. I think it does my business good; my community gets to see (most) all of me. They get to know me on a deeper level, and see my habits, interests and quirks.

However, here’s what I also know for sure: just because personal spills into professional, doesn’t mean we can’t also have a third element – and that is private. Each of us has a private life too and that’s where the line should be drawn.

persprofpriv

Thing is, even in password protected, membership only type sites and communities, I’m of the opinion that anything you don’t want the whole world to know about you should not be posted online.

So, it’s up to you, but I think you can let your hair down a bit and choose to be as transparent as you wish, yet not be in fear of totally exposing yourself online!

On my next post, I’ll share a short how-to guide on adjusting your Privacy settings.

Mari Smith

Often referred to as “the Queen of Facebook,” Mari Smith is widely known as the Premier Facebook Marketing Expert and a top Social Media Thought Leader. Forbes describes Mari as, “… the preeminent Facebook expert. Even Facebook asks for her help.” IBM named Mari as one of seven women that are shaping digital marketing. Mari is an in-demand keynote speaker, corporate social media strategist, dynamic live webcast host, and popular brand ambassador. She is coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day, and author of The New Relationship Marketing.

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4 Comments

  1. robert santos on February 28, 2009 at 6:53 am

    Thank you, that is very informative. So I am right to say that social networking is more of gathering a group of individuals with the same interests to form a community.
    😀

    robert santos’s last blog post.. Globe drops iPhone 3G Price by Php4,000



  2. Nadine Touzet on April 14, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    I’ve been lucky. Thanks to my education and because of the nature of the microcosm in which I work, I’ve always been reluctant to disclose what you call my ‘private’ life, so I’m fine with online social networks.

    Thanks for pointing that need to those who might be hurt.

    Cheers
    Nadine



  3. Mari Smith on March 11, 2008 at 11:01 pm

    The good news is Facebook has extensive Privacy settings that users can edit to their liking. You can be practically invisible on Facebook, save for your chosen/approved friends! Look for my 9-minute video on YouTube about editing your Faceobok privacy settings.



  4. Mary Lynn Archibald on March 11, 2008 at 7:54 pm

    Great point! I know it’s tricky to maintain your privacy, and that’s why I hesitate to get involved with FaceBook. Yikes!



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